Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance

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Presentation of the First Public Procurement Monitoring Report within the Project "Public Money is My Money Too!"

Wed, 01/20/2016 - 11:30

The Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AGER) and the Centre for Journalistic Investigations have presented the first Public Procurement Monitoring Report.The monitoring was carried out for 30 contracting authorities from around the country, by experts from AGER and 10 local NGOs during the period July-December 2015. During the event the results of public procurement monitoring have been presented as well as the journalistic investigations performed by the Center for Journalistic Investigations.

During August-November 2015 partner organizations of the project monitored a total of 189 public procurement procedures, out of which 101 open tenders (OT), 66 requests for pricing (RP), 19 requests for pricing without publication (RPNP) and 3 single source procurements (SSP). This number is much lower than planned. Many of the procurement procedures intended to be assessed, could not be analyzed because the contracting authorities have refused to provide the access to information from procurement dossiers. Curiously, out of the ten authorities monitored in Chisinau, three have given us access to files, while seven others refused, each citing different reasons, such as, for example, commercial secrets or the fact that the law does not oblige them to provide such information.

Despite encountered difficulties, the organizations involved in the project were able to analyze a sufficient number of cases that allow us to make certain assumptions relating to procurement issues in Moldova.

The main weaknesses of the procurement procedures can be classified into two main broad categories. The first comprises legislative issues, and the second - functional. Thus, even in cases where the law is imperfect, procurement procedures can be performed in an efficient manner if there is good will of the contracting authority. Unfortunately, we realize, however, that contracting authorities mostly use these shortcomings in their own interest and not public good.

The report has been elaborated within the project “Public Money is My Money Too”! implemented by the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AGER) and the Centre for Journalistic Investigations, financed by the European Union and co financed by the National Endowment for Democracy.